1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to, but are not limited to, electronic devices, and in particular, to the field of noise filtration in electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
In the current state of electronics, electronic packages and devices are often coupled to an underlying substrate such as a printed circuit board (PCB), sometimes referred to as a motherboard. The electronic packages themselves typically include a die that is mounted on top of a carrier substrate. The die may be comprised of an electronic device such as a microprocessor, volatile memory, embedded passive components, and the like.
One problem commonly associated with the various signals transmitted between the various electronic packages (components) coupled to the PCB is noise in the signals. The source for the noise may be due to several factors including high frequency switching. The presence of such noise in, for example, input/output (I/O) signals that are being transmitted through the PCB may seriously impede the performance of the various components that resides on the PCB. In order to remove the noise from I/O signals, filters are often disposed directly onto the PCB substrate. For example, it is known that to separate common mode noise from a differential signal, capacitors may be used to filter out the common mode noise. The current state-of-the-art solution is to use small discrete 2-terminal capacitors that are mounted on the PCB. As a result, the I/O signals that are being transmitted through the PCB are also being filtered in the PCB.
FIG. 1 depicts the circuitry of a conventional PCB that includes filters for removing common mode noise from differential mode signals. The conventional approach for removing common mode noise from differential mode signals is to use filters such as discrete 2-terminal capacitors (see ref. 102 of FIG. 1) that are disposed directly on the PCB. Unfortunately, such components may give rise to reliability issues and increase manufacturing and/or processing costs. In addition, such discrete components on a PCB can be a bottleneck in shrinking PCB size, and in turn, the form factor of a system.